Premiering at Sundance Film Festival earlier this year and recently stopping by Cannes, it’ll be a remarkable year if there’s a better documentary to arrive than Once Upon a Time in Harlem. An extraordinary time capsule featuring footage the late William Greaves (Symbiopsychotaxiplasm) and his son David Greaves shot of a 1972 party taking place in Duke Ellington’s party, the film features key figures in the Harlem Renaissance taking part in a lively, sprawling conversation reflecting on the individual personalities and artistic interests that gave way to a historic movement. Now set for an October 16 theatrical release from NEON, they’ve debuted the first teaser and poster.
Here’s the synopsis: “A decade after his death, genre-defying filmmaker William Greaves has one last trick up his sleeve with what he considered the most important event he captured on film: a 1972 party he engineered with the living luminaries of the Harlem Renaissance. For four hours, this extraordinary group – many of whom had not seen each other in fifty years – reminisced, critiqued, argued, laughed and drank while wrestling with their place in a rapidly shifting cultural landscape. Shot on 16mm film, newly restored and now directed by Greaves’ son David, this landmark film is at once a self-exploration and an inquiry into the heart of the critical mass of energy called the Harlem Renaissance. William Greaves’ intent was not only to document these artists and intellectuals as they spoke about their lives and work but also to plumb the meaning of the extraordinary creative period in which they lived to help us better understand how culture has been passed on from one generation to another and the role that the artist plays in keeping it alive.”
Kent M. Wilhelm said in his Sundance review, “Picture this: it’s an overcast day in August 1972. You’re at a cocktail party at Duke Ellington’s townhouse in Harlem. As you awkwardly hold your glass of punch, you’re drowned in cacophonous conversation about art, politics, and society during one of the most vibrant intellectual and creative movements of the modern era. This is the experience of William and David Greaves’ Once Upon a Time in Harlem, an immersive and masterfully rendered documentary that presents a living, breathing oral history of the Harlem Renaissance. Watching it feels like unearthing treasure.”
See the teaser and poster below.
